The pizza business previously increased the amount it pays drivers for each run, and Brown said it’s time for another adjustment.

“We’re going to change it soon,” he said last week. “I just talked to the owner, and we’re looking at what everyone else is doing. You don’t want to jump the gun and pay a certain price now and then have the price of gas go back down, so we’re looking at putting it on a sliding scale.”

That method is exactly what Papa John’s pizza does. Its drivers used to get $1 per run, but when gas prices climbed above $2, drivers were given an extra nickel. If gas prices increase past $2.25, Papa John’s will pay their drivers another 5 cents per trip, General Manager Matt Phillips said.

Shakespeare’s Pizza is starting to feel the impact of higher gas prices as well.

“The workers are coming to me with a legitimate issue, so we’re thinking of either raising the 75 cents (they now get per run) or getting our own cars,” owner Kurt Mirtsching said. “If the cost to deliver goes up, then eventually the price will reflect that one way or another.”

Mirtsching said increases in gas prices will not hurt his delivery service because people will be less willing to drive and will therefore use the service more.

“As gas prices increase, it’ll be more efficient for one deliverer to go to 10 homes rather than those 10 people to go to the store,” he said.

For now, McGrath and other delivery drivers are paying more at the pumps and hoping their customers remember the realities of the high gas prices.

McGrath said the only thing he’s doing differently is “getting more upset when people don’t tip.”

A portion of this report first aired Monday during “News at 10” on KMIZ/Channel 17 ABC, Columbia.